PAF parts

[RedHouse]

... sheesh lets not start another bogus PAF myth...

Most definately!

[David Schwab]

The 16ohm pickup...

16 kilohm! Not 16 ohm.

[David King]

I say myths will form wherever people are there with a will to believe them.
Guitar players seem to be willing to believe almost anything and seems to make them happier.

[Possum]

....

OH< NOW I GET IT TYPOOOOOO, DUH! You know that typo has been there for about five years :-) I need to update my site, redesign it really, raise my prices, take the yacht to Italy, aaaaah the life.....

[Possum]

....

I'd like to start a new PAF myth to pass around the net. They are a BAD investment :-) Really, those things are dying like all the time and were never meant to last, and someone is going to pay ten freaking thousand dollars for something thats eventually going to go bad and is probably near its expiration date :-) Rewind a $10,000 PAF and value drops to nearly unsellable on Ebay :-)

[the great waldo]

The Ball finally dropped !!!!

Cheers

Andrew.

By the way I just had a L5 in with white purple label with two patent number humbucker baseplates with t top pickup inside and they sound really crappy, all bass no trebles, muddy 8 k resistance, I was wondering if the patent number label with t tops was normal ?

[RedHouse]

...I was wondering if the patent number label with t tops was normal ?...

Yep I have a pic of a zebra T-top with pat-# baseplate around here somewhere, I'll try and dig them up.
(also have a pic of a T-top with PAF sticker on the baseplate)

And yes, Gibson pickups sounding crappy be they PAF, T-top, or whatever is also not unusual ...to most that is.

The internet rumor is those pickups are built on days when Gibson doesn't get their shipment of magic-metal and they have to send the box-boy down to the local hardware store to buy screws and keepers.

[David Schwab]

take the yacht to Italy, aaaaah the life.....

There you go! I'll pull my yacht next to yours, and ask if you have any Grey Poupon.

Oh, first I need to brush up on my Italian.... "ummm.... dove il bagno?"

[LtKojak]

"ummm.... dove il bagno?"

I should be like this:

"Scusi, dov'è il bagno, per favore?

(Excuse me, where's the bathroom, please?)

The most probable anwer to that question will be:

"Non c'è, è rotto" (No bathroom, it's broken)

I wish I was joking.

HTH,

[David Schwab]

I should be like this:

"Scusi, dov'è il bagno, per favore?

(Excuse me, where's the bathroom, please?)

The most probable anwer to that question will be:

"Non c'è, è rotto" (No bathroom, it's broken)

I wish I was joking.

HTH,

Fortunately I didn't have bad luck in that department.

My wife and I had a wonderful week in Roma back on our "honeymoon" (A year after we got married)!

[Arndawg56]

Does anyone have any direct injection recordings of Peter Green's, Gary Moore, or Jimmy Page's guitars? It sure would help me in my research.

Being a sound engineer since the early 70's, I can honestly say (IMHO) the old PAF's are all over the place. If you get a great sounding one, you should keep it and use it. Don't tear it apart to see what makes it sound so good. It seems most everyone here knows what they are made of. Also IMHO it seems that the sweet PAF sound I prefer, comes from a guitar made with mahogony (Les Paul, SG) and played thru an over driven tube amp.

But thats just me and my 2 cents
Arndawg

[jwendt2003]

Here's what I learned so far about really nailing that 'PAF' sound:

1. You need metal alloys from the '50s that can't ever be reproduced again.

2. You need exact replicas of the plastic bobbins, which to this day, modern science has not been able to accurately reproduce in this cheap little plastic part for some reason. Perhaps it's the circle/square thingy that's throwing them off.

3. You need 43 AWG plain enamel wire that changes gauges within each bobbin, but this is not officially confirmed yet. Perhaps someone can unwind a few more great sounding original $10k PAFs to verify that.

4. PAFs were 'all over the place', so there really is no such thing as a 'PAF sound', which nullifies all of the above.

But seriously, I've learned a lot so far. I won't be as disappointed when my first humbucker doesn't sound just like Jimmy Page. At least it'll be better than the ceramic ones I'm replacing. I have most of my parts in, just waiting on the wire.

[David Schwab]

Here's what I learned so far about really nailing that 'PAF' sound:

1. You need metal alloys from the '50s that can't ever be reproduced again.

I guess you aren't familiar with the work some of the forum members have done in analyzing the metal used in the PAFs. They had custom screws made. I got some of them, and they really do sound different from something like the Stew-mac screws.

I suspect they did the same with the other metal parts.

2. You need exact replicas of the plastic bobbins, which to this day, modern science has not been able to accurately reproduce in this cheap little plastic part for some reason. Perhaps it's the circle/square thingy that's throwing them off.

All you need is the correct coil geometry. I don't buy that any of the rest has any bearing on the tone.

3. You need 43 AWG plain enamel wire that changes gauges within each bobbin, but this is not officially confirmed yet. Perhaps someone can unwind a few more great sounding original $10k PAFs to verify that.

42AWG. Unless you want to make a overwound PAF.

Don't forget the plane enamel coating. Another thing I'm not sure about, since I have zero experience with PE.

4. PAFs were 'all over the place', so there really is no such thing as a 'PAF sound', which nullifies all of the above.

The PAF sound is what ever the PAF sound was! No two guitars sound the same anyway. Don't forget the strings they used back then too.

But seriously, I've learned a lot so far. I won't be as disappointed when my first humbucker doesn't sound just like Jimmy Page.

Just remember that a lot of those Page recordings were done on a Tele!

[LtKojak]

Just remember that a lot of those Page recordings were done on a Tele!

Word! What's been considered for most THE quintaessential PAF tone, (Gibson Les Paul-Marshall tone) which's the "Stairway to Heaven" solo, it's actually been made with a stock Tele and an old Supro amp.

So much for that elusive PAF tone, huh?

[voodoochild]

I heard that the parts of a PAF are more important than the wire or windings to create that sound. I understand soft iron was used for the slugs and bar (not sure about the adjust screws). Does anyone sell parts like this? It looks like these parts are mostly available made from 'steel'. -Jim

Mama always said PAFs are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. No seriously, some if not most original PAF's sounded terrible while there were a select few that were just magical. I look at it as yeah materials matter but knowing how to make a good sounding pickup with the materials you have is what really matters. It's like guitars, there are so many people who spend wreck less amounts of money on super expensive top of the line bodies, necks, pickups, hardware, etc, but the guitar ends up being a POS because they lacked the skills and knowledge to put it all together correctly. On the other hand, there are people who can buy decent quality(Mid grade) necks, bodies, hardware, etc, and truly make an outstanding guitar that will out perform most anything that uses high grade materials. Its all in the end set up. Materials make only make up a small part of the equation given that the materials are acceptable to use.